Young People’s Network

What if you could reshape the mental health of children and young people?

Our Young People’s Network is made up of young people aged 13 to 24 interested in mental health. By joining, you’ll hear about the latest opportunities to get directly involved in mental health research, either with McPin or our partners. Signing up is free – and it’s easy too. We’ll send involvement opportunities directly to your inbox. No previous experience of research is required!

Why sign up?

Too often mental health research about young people is carried out by researchers without the input of young people themselves. But how can we make relevant findings without asking the right people what we should be looking for? At the McPin Foundation, we think that research should always involve the people that it directly affects.

By signing up to the network, you’ll have the chance to –

Learn more about mental health and research

Develop useful skills that could be used to boost your CV for employment and education opportunities

Get the opportunity to meet and work with like-minded people

Work with and learn from researchers and academics in mental health research and gain valuable knowledge and skills

Receive payment. Some of the opportunities that we tell you about may offer payment (please check individual involvement opportunities for details)

Really make a difference to how we understand young people’s mental health. This is especially important at a time when young people’s mental health services are in desperate need of change!

How do I sign up?

To get updates from the Young People’s Network straight to your inbox, sign up here. You can unsubscribe at any time and it’s free!

Get Involved

As well as having a chance to get involved with research, there are other ways that you can be part of our community. We are currently looking for people to design the network’s logo and write content for our newsletter and blog.

Below you can read about other ways that young people are involved in research at McPin. We’ll let you know via our newsletter when these opportunities come up.

Young Reviewers

Our panel of reviewers, made up of people with lived experience of mental health difficulties, includes young people aged 16 to 25. The panel was set up to comment on the work of our research partners, and suggest improvements to research documents, such as research plans and lay summaries. Young people join the panel when it is reviewing research that relates to the mental health of young people.

Young People’s Advisory Group

Our YPAG’s current areas of interest are –

The first stage of the Right People Right Questions project has been completed. The YPAG will continue to be involved in future stages. The project is a good example of how young people can play a central role in a research project, so check out the webpage if you think mental health research might be something you’d like to get involved with.

Are you a researcher seeking to involve young people in your work?

Are you interested in involving young people in your research? If you send us some information about the opportunity, we can send it out to our Young People’s Network to help you recruit. Or, if it fits with our YPAG’s current topics of interest, we can invite you along to one of our meetings.

More information

If you would like more information on the Young People’s Network and involvement in research, please contact Rachel Temple: racheltemple@mcpin.org

If you would like mental health support, please access our Support Page.